equinoxstudios

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It’s that time of year again, where Perth city gets taken over by the excitement of Cosplayers and fans of cult tv and movie series. If you have never been to a Comic Convention, there is no better place to start or time to do it than at OzComicCon. Whether you get into the cosplay spirit, collect merchandise, fan art or want to hang with your favourite celebrity – there is something for everyone and for all ages.

For me personally, I love it all; the cosplayers, the celebrity panels, the merchandise available – the lot. The cosplays are a particular favourite – every year I marvel at how incredibly talented the cosplays are; the level of sophistication and the quality of execution just gets better and better with each convention!

Speaking of cosplayers; a huge shout out of congratulations to our very own Lady Jaded who is one of this years featured cosplay guests at OzComicCon Perth!!

I have been fortunate enough to have the pleasure of working with Jade on a variety of projects – her cosplay resourcefulness and creativity knows no bounds as you can see from some of the shoots below!

I am very proud of your recent cosplay guest achievement and look forward to seeing what exciting cosplays you dream up next

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You will see many great examples of compositing on this site, where various unrelated photos are used to create a completely different scene. Probably the greatest example of this is a recent Princess Leia image I have just completed. The image is a re-creation of a scene that takes place during Return of the Jedi, and features the princess in her slave Leia costume, sitting pin-up style on one the rail guns on Jabba’s floating palace. The images used, aside from the obvious desert landscape included the hull of a yacht, some back yard shade sails, the turret off a battle ship and part of a tank – completely unrelated and varying items that come together to produce a composite. You will however have to wait another day to see the final product!

I have been compositing images for years, and looking back, I can easily identify a few personal favorites – and they are not all recent either. One favorite in particular is now two years old – a recreation of a scene during the 1940-41 London Blitz. In this scene, the young protagonist has just left an officers dance held in London, and is walking home. She has an air force officers jacket to keep her warm as she crosses over Westminster bridge. Behind her, Big Ben, the epicenter of London, and the surrounding buildings are all dark – the entire city of London cloaked in darkness in an effort to make it difficult for German bombers to accurately hit their targets. Large floating barrage balloons also fill the skyline with nets stretched out in an effort to snare and destroy attacking planes. It was a time where Hitler’s war machine was rolling its way higher up the map – the war was coming to England.

Since creating the London Blitz composite in June 2013, I have created hundreds more – from mermaids in the ocean, super heroes, various heroines and fantastical pieces to name a few – I often wondered how my skills in compositing may have changed or advanced over the years. For one, I knew that my attention to lighting detail had definitely evolved – lighting being the most critical component to the realism of any composite – it distinguishes between a realistic result and something obviously Photoshopped – yet in saying this, lighting is often either mistreated or dismissed altogether – as if by that stage of the creative process, the artists eyes are so tunneled to the effect they just produced rather than the realism of it. Looking back in the 2013 version of the London Blitz composite, despite the attempt at shadowing, the image had no concept of lighting – not anything like I apply nowadays, so there was definitely room for improvement.

Not wanting to discard the 2013 rendition, I decided to select a slightly different photo of Lady Lace to use for the 2015 creation – whilst still staying true to the theme and style of the original piece. The 2015 rendition took just over an hour to produce – a time lapsed video of its creation is available below.

The composite consists of a modern day photograph of London which gets rolled back in time, the photograph featuring London’s infamous Big Ben and the Westminster bridge, a light bulb, cloud and fire images, plane silhouettes and photos of original barrage balloons.

The end result? Well, personally, I fell in love with a long-favorite concept of mine all over again.

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Looking for an idea for a wedding gift? These close group of friends found a unique way of expressing their friendship – all uniting for the one thing they had in common – the happy couple about to be married.

Friends, forever.

Sep

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Like most aussies, we’ve all gone down to the pub at one point or another and shot a few balls with mates between drinks. However, unless you have the money* and space, the Pool table still remains one of those luxury items either found down at the pub or at your rich uncles house.

* I say ‘money’ for although there are a variety of cheaper pool table options available these days (read: wooden table top rather than slate), when it comes to purchasing a pool table to regularly play off – there is no substitute for quality – and you’d surely be disappointed with anything other than slate.

You can also say there is no substitute for quality when it comes to photography, well, that is the mantra I strive to live by anyway, where there is no room in the vocabulary for ‘good enough’ – it has to be either good, or it isn’t. If it isn’t, try harder.

So when I came across a few concept images of glamour models modelling on pool tables – it simply became a question of how – I was already sold on the concept.

With all the special effects photography I do (see the portfolio if you don’t understand), photo shopping in a pool table is well in the realms of possibility. However, wherever possible I do try to build the required props – or at least the items the model in question will be in close contact with. In the instance that a photograph required a pool table to be located somewhere in the background or foreground of the model, yes, I would very easily be swayed to Photoshop it in – but in the instance you want interaction – well, there is no substitute for the genuine article.

So with a few spare days up my sleeve and my collection of power tools charged and ready to go – I started out planning the construction of my very own pool table.

DISCLAIMER: The tips and story that follows should be used as a guide only. This blog in no way is mandating “the way” a pool table should be developed. However, if you are heading down the path to construct one yourself, this blog may enlighten you on a few bits and pieces and is written on the premise that ‘every little bit helps’.

Although no budget was initially set, I was mindful that I didn’t want this project to cost anywhere near as much as the out-right cost of purchasing a second hand table or cheaper wooden table. With slate obviously out of the question (I am a one-man-band here), it was clear that I was looking at a wood construction. With an idea that smaller wooden pool tables had a cost of approx. $600+, I opted for creating a mid-size table 8×10 for a budget of around $300.00.

There were to be no shortcuts (no visible ones anyway) with this table construction – as primarily the purpose of the table is to be used in photo shoots, aesthetics was critical. In addition to this, with aesthetics being so front of mind, it wouldn’t be too big a leap to therefore create it for practical use as well – though this was a secondary mandate – being ever so mindful of the challenges of developing a table top that was perfectly level in every respect for satisfactory game play.

Assembly
Assembly was rather straight forward – provided you took your time and measured twice and cut once. As best practice, when constructing something I like to try and prepare all of the components and sit them together to get a general feel for how the end product will look. For one, it gives you an idea of the end goal and two, it helps with spotting any measurement errors you may have made along the way – rather than waiting till the very end and realising it doesn’t fit together.

This also helped re-assure the fact that the hole size and placement was correct. Despite studying photos of completed pool tables, the table top, minus the walls doesn’t look like much of a pool table at all – and because of this, the whole positioning and size can easily throw you off.

Once the holes were cut, it was time to lay on the felt material. For aesthetic reasons (since this is initially a photo-prop first and foremost) I wanted a punchy colour rather than the traditional green. From a game play perspective, it was important that the felt material was extremely short as to allow the ball to travel the distance. If you were designing this pool table for game play (other than recommending slate for the base), I would recommend you go to an authorised pool table supply shop and purchase your fabric from there. However, for what I intended to use it for, Spotlight worked out just fine.

The method for fixing the fabric to the table is no different whether you’re making the table as a prop or for game play. Start by rolling out the fabric onto the table surface – be sure the table surface is first of all free from all dust – the smallest spec will show up the size of a mountain under the fabric and once the fabric is down there won’t be anything you can do about it.

Starting from one side, staple the fabric to the side or base of the table, keep the staples nice and close and ensure you keep a straight line. Continue down one side of the table. Then do the opposite site, and ensure you have good tension on the fabric. Keep a close eye on the table and watch for any ripples in the material. These can usually be remedied by applying extra stretch to the material.

The walls were fitted with stiff rubber to assist with the ball bouncing off the sides and then wrapped in the same fabric as the table top. Each wall piece was then screwed into the table from underneath the table.

As a finishing touch (and to also serve as a mount for the brass pockets), additional pine was stained in a jarrah varnish and fixed onto the exterior walls.

The end result – a very versatile pool table prop that looks the part. As for game play – since I never created sturdy legs for the table I could never fully test this out – besides, once the first model climbs on it in heels, all bets are off!

For portability around the studio, the table pictured above (and below) was resting on four 400x400mm dollys – which also came in handy for shooting – allowing me to rotate the table into the perfect frame without having to move either myself or adjust the lighting.

A preview of the finished product – it’s incredible what a little smoke, lighting and a beautiful model can do!

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Blend layers like a PRO! Attention to detail is critical – follow these steps to achieve a perfect portrait.

Volume 32: Digital Photography Magazine

About Digital Photography magazine: The top digital photography magazine in Australia delivers inspiration and information for photographers of all levels – to help you take better shots every time. Digital Photography is a bi-monthly title. Every issue covers a wide range of themes and skillsets, from portraiture to landscape and more – and now includes a dedicated videography component, to target DSLR and compact users who wish to shoot movies as well as stills.

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This blog will hopefully be the first of many, exploring the process behind creating some of the compositions you can find in the featured gallery.

In many ways, cosplay and themed photography shoots are only as good as the model you have to work with. In the case of Poison Ivy, I had the pleasure of working with the very beautiful and talented Playboy Miss Social August 2014 model Candice Elizabeth.

Of course, when it comes to re-creating a character so well documented in a variety of forms, from the original DC comic books, film adaptations (Batman and Robin), and popular graphic artists such as ‘Stanley Lau‘ and of course, the Halloween wardrobe of curvaceous socialite Kim Kardashian, there is a lot of inspiration to go by. Despite the number of ready-to-buy costumes available, I had fallen in love with Stanley Lau’s interpretation of Poison Ivy, for me, Lau’s Ivy was the perfect combination of beauty, wildness and sexy – whilst being capable at either wooing Batman into a trans or disposing of him.

With my mind set, model selected, the challenge then became the costume. Determined to keep the same style of Poison Ivy as Lau had penned, I realised this was likely not going to be a case of browsing for a matching costume online, it wouldn’t exist. For those costumes out there that came close, in one respect or another, they lacked realism (as much as one can judge the realism of a costume that is based on a comic book character).

Ultimately, digitally creating the costume for Candice was going to be the only way forward. Being inspired by the INCREDIBLE works of Mike Roshuk, Illustrator/Graphics specialist, best known through the internet for his Princess Warrior series, I set my heart to the task of digitally creating Candice’s Poison Ivy costume.

Not having the penmanship ability’s of Roshuk or Lau, the Poison Ivy costume was not drawn, rather, it was created using stock imagery, and in the case of the corset piece, it was quite literally leaf by leaf.

Therefore, with a physical costume not being relevant for the shoot we shot using a green bikini set – obviously, the less clothing to deal with the more freedom I had for imposing my own Poison Ivy costume over top. The sequences were shot against a white backdrop initially, followed by a repeat of the sequence on a black backdrop (a personal preference to shooting with a green screen – to be discussed another day).

Being there for the process, I was super amazed by how the shots ended up. The detailed outfit itself was so impressive and the backgrounds were very detailed. I was particularly impressed with the video – made from just one simple shot and turned into a minute long piece complete with zooming and panning. Looking forward to doing another shoot utilising Chris’ digital manipulation skills next month. — Candice Elizabeth

Once the costume came together, the rest was easy, and with the soundtrack for the Batman movies blaring through the speakers, I sunk back into my chair and began creating the backdrops for my DC villain.

The first backdrop I developed (most likely thanks to the action-packed soundtrack sequence I was listening to at the time) involved a street scene with ivy spewing out from beneath the streets, strangling cars and wreaking havoc.

As much as I loved the journey of creating this setting for my newly created Poison Ivy, the blue fog version below remains my favorite.

With the success of Poison Ivy, a recreation of both the DC and Marvel universes is still in progress, with new heroes and villains being forged, some of whom you will see in the feature gallery.